Notes from a fresh fan of maritime Turku!

Spending a few months by the Aura river, and especially at the Turku port, have made me look at Turku with different eyes. In addition to lovely people, beautiful landscapes and a compact city, I have realized how unique Turku is as a maritime town. The port handles more and more passengers and cargo. The shipyard generates employment to a network of suppliers. Turku area is a location where ships are not only built, but also demolished. We hope the new demolishing project turns into sustainable business in long term. The project is a great example of joining forces – a shipyard, a recycling company and a cleaning services supplier together with ourselves. Besides maritime business, Turku is a hub for education and science. This guarantees that we have a perspective into the future, and there will be enough skilled employees available for local maritime companies.

Turku truly is a great example how cooperation benefits both individual companies, and the maritime cluster as a whole. This is exactly what we need in the Finnish shipping: there are no space resources to be wasted in protecting your own business and competing with each other. The toughest competitors for the Finnish shipping and the maritime cluster come from abroad – so let’s not waste energy to domestic competition!

On behalf of the whole Meriaura team I wish you all happy autumn!

Elisa MikkolainenManaging Director of Meriaura Group

Firming
market despite poor outlook for the domestic grain harvest

After
several years of poor demand in dry bulk shipping, the market is now showing
significant growth on the demand side. The signs of a firmer market have been
visible since the late summer, and the speed has been picking up ever since.
Although grain Exports from Finland are likely to decline since up to 20% of
the harvest will be lost due to extremely bad weather conditions, total demand
in our trading area is likely to increase. Undoubtedly the reason for stronger
demand is to be found in the good economic growth, which has finally also
reached Finland.

It’s also
well known that due to the long recession in the shipping industry, newbuilding
activity has been low, which means the supply of suitable tonnage has decreased
during the last years.

Although strong
market volatility is typical in shipping, many experts with an insight in
shipping claim that this upturn is on a more sustainable basis, while current
economic growth is broad-based and predicted to continue in the next few years.
Unfavorable weather conditions in the past weeks and the upcoming winter season
(reduced intake due to winter load lines, ice restrictions, more time-consuming
cargo- and cleaning operations etc.) will most likely contribute to further
boost the freight market.

We have prepared
for the winter as well as for the hopefully increasing demand, and supplemented
our fleet by chartering a couple of new ice-classed vessels. The fleet for the
upcoming year will be presented in more detail in our next newsletter, but we
can reveal that we’ll have an appropriate coverage in the 4000 as well as the
3000 tonner segment.

Beppe RosinVice Managing Director, Meriaura Ltd.

Photo by Panu Hänninen

M/v Meri on her first oceanographic expedition

Meriaura's open deck cargo carriers 'Meri' and 'Aura' have been equipped with mobile, container based research facilities. The Finnish Environment Institute SYKE and the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute SMHI are performing marine research with the vessels while the research vessel Aranda is under conversion. The contract consists of several expeditions, which requires efficient mobilization and demobilization of the SYKE’s research equipment on board. Meri and Aura's dynamic position systems are utilized during sampling.

First expedition was carried out in September 2017. The client was satisfied with vessel’s performance. “The sampling was easy because the vessel is stable and not rolling even in hard weather conditions,” says Panu Hänninen, Senior Coordinator in SYKE. Sampling is done at the same research points monthly.

‘Meri’ and ‘Aura’ are both ice classed, enabling research also during the winter time. Additional accommodation capacity is required on board the vessel during the research expeditions, and therefore Meriaura installed mobile accommodation units on board the vessel.

Photo by Esko Pettay

Meriaura taking part in creating a Finnish ship recycling industry

What happens to ocean liners at the end of their lifecycle? Until now, these ships have been demolished in India or Bangladesh, where working conditions are not always as they should be. As EU regulation tightens, ships that have sailed under EU Member State flags must undergo certified demolition within the EU, that is sustainable for the environment and people. However, there are no demolition sites for large ocean liners, longer than 100 meters.

Funded by Tekes, the Ship Recycling project sets out to investigate how Finland could respond to this global challenge. The project consortium includes Turku Repair Yard, Meriaura, Delete Finland and Industrial and Ship Cleaning Services Hans Langh. The Ship Recycling project aims to launch a ship demolition industry in Finland. Up to 90% of the weight of a ship consists of steel and other materials that can be recycled. The creation of a demolition industry would create new jobs in Finland and provide opportunities for subcontractors.

The Ship Recycling project is currently in the demo stage. Meriaura acquired a ship for demolition, which is at the moment taking place in Naantali. “Meriaura has been involved in metal recycling business since 1995. In this project we will also take care of transporting and trading the recycled material back to industry”, says Jukkis Sutela, Business Development Manager in Meriaura.

How can a rotten ship be used before recycling?

Photo Finnish Border Guard

The old
passanger vessel Blue White Eagle, that Meriaura bought for the Ship Recycling project
described above, was used in many ways before demolition. While the vessel was
waiting for her last trip to the ship yard, Meriaura arranged the
Finnish Border Guard a possibility to use the ship for training purposes.

The Coast
Guard Maritime SAR operators exercised for finding alternative ways in penetrating
to a ship in a rescue operation. Explosive inputs, mechanical and hydraulic
tools were used for forcing in to the vessel. Gulf of Finland Coast Guard District thanks Meriaura
for offering the vessel and enabling a rescue practice in an authentic
environment. Border Guard is the leading maritime rescue authority
in Finland who tests and develops different operating models for
maritime rescue in order to be effective and safe, both for rescues and rescue operators.

Blue White
Eagle got a lot of interest among the media and photographers too. Meriaura
granted photographer Mikko Nurminen a possibilty to a model photoshoot on the ship. Please enjoy a
few of his artistic pictures of beautiful ladies on the famous ship.